[This brief Life Sketch of Mahatma Jotirao Phule is
written by the noted the scholar Dr.Y.D. Phadke. He is
the editor of the Collected Words of Mahatma Phule
in Marathi. He is also an eminent scholar of Mahatma
Phule and the Satyashodhak Movement.]

JOTIRAO GOVINDO PHULE occupies a unique position among the
social reformers of Maharashtra in the nineteenth century. While
other reformers concentrated more on reforming the social
institutions of family and marriage with special emphasis on the
status and right of women, Jotirao Phule revolted against the
unjust caste system under which millions of people had suffered
for centuries. In particular, he courageously upheld the cause of
the untouchables and look up the cudgels for the poorer peasants.
He was a militant advocate of their right. The story of his
stormy life is an inspiring saga of a continuous struggle
which he waged relentlessly against the forces of reaction.
Though some keen observers of the social scene in Maharashtra
like Narayan Mahadeo Parmananda did acknowledge his greatness in
his lifetime, it is only in is only in recent decades that there
is increasing appreciation of his service and sacrifice in
uplifting the masses.

Jotirao Phule was born in 1827. His father, Govindrao was a
vegetable-vendor at Poona. Originally Jotirao's family known as
Gorhays, came from Katgun, a village in the Satara district of
Maharashtra, His grandfather Shetiba Gorhay settled down in
Poona. Since Jotirao's father and two uncles served as florists
under the last of the Peshwas, they came to be known as `Phule'.
Jotirao's mother passed away when he was hardly one year old.
After completing his primary education, Jotirao had to leave the
school and help his father by working on the family's farm.
Jotirao's marriage was celebrated when he was not even thirteen.

Impressed by Jotirao's intelligence and his love of knowledge two
of his neighbours, one a Muslim teacher and another a Christian
gentleman persuaded his father Govindrao to allow him to study in
a secondary school. In 1841, got admission in the Scottish
Mission's High School at Poona. It was in his this school that
he met Sadashiv Ballal Govande, a Brahmin, who remained a close
friend throughout his life. Both Jotirao and Govande were greatly
influenced by Thomas Paine's ideas and they read with great
interest Paine's famous book 'The Rights of Man.' Moro Vithal
Valvekar and Sakharam Yashwant Paranjapye were two other Brahmin
friends of Jotirao who in later years stood by him in all his
activities. After completing his secondary education in 1847
Jotirao decided not to accept a job under the Government.

An incident in 1848 made him aware of the iniquities of the caste
system, the predominant position of the Brahmin in the social
setup. He was invited to attend a wedding of one of his Brahmin
friends. As the bridegroom was taken in a procession, Jotirao
accompanied him along with the relatives of his Brahmin friends.
Knowing that Jotirao belonged to the Mail caste which was
considered to be inferior by the Brahmins, the relatives of the
bridegroom insulted and abused him. Jotirao left the procession
and retuned home. With tears in his eyes, he narrated his
experience to his father who tried to pacify him. After this
incident Jotirao made up his mind to defy the caste-system and
serve the Shudras and women who were deprived of all their rights
as human beings under the caste-system.

Education of women and the lower castes, he believed, deserved
priority, Hence he began educating his wife Savitribai and opened
a girls' school in August 1848. The orthodox opponents of Jotirao
were furious and they started a vicious campaign against him. He
refused to be unnerved by their malicious propaganda. As no
teacher dared to work in a which untouchable were admitted as
students, Jotirao asked his wife to teach the girls in his
school. Stones and brickbats were thrown at her when she was on
her way to the school. The reactionaries threatened Jotirao's
father with dire consequences if he did not dissociate himself
Yielding to the pressure, Jotirao's father asked his son and the
daughter in-law to leave his house as both of them refused to
give up their noble endeavor.

Though the school had to be closed for sometime due to lack of
funds, Jotirao re-opened it with the help of his Brahmin friends
Govande and Valvekar. On 3 July 1851, he founded a girls' school
in which eight girls were admitted on the first day. Steadily the
number of students increased. Savitribai taught in this school
also and had to suffer a lot because of hostility of the orthodox
people. Jotirao opened two more girl's schools during 1851-52 in
a memorial addressed to the Education Commission (popularly known
as the Hunter Commission) in 1882, he described his activities in
the field of education, `A year after the institution of the
female school I also established and indigenous mixed school for
the lower classes, especially the Mahars and Mangs. Two more
schools for these classes were subsequently added. I continued to
work in them for nearly nine to ten years'.

Jotirao was aware that primary education among the masses in the
Bombay Presidency was very much neglected. He argued that 'a good
deal of their poverty, their want of self-reliance, their entire
dependence upon the learned and intelligent classes' could be
attribute to the British Government for spending profusely a
large portion of revenue on the education of the higher classes.
According to him. this policy resulted in the virtual monopoly of
all the higher offices under the Government by the Brahmins.

Jotirao boldly attacked the stranglehold of the Brahmins, who
prevented others from having access to all the avenues of
Knowledge and influence. He denounced them as cheats and
hypocrites. He asked the masses to resist the tyranny of the
Brahmins. All his writings were variation on this theme. His
critics made fun of his ignorance of grammar and philology, his
inelegant language and far-fetched interpretation of Indian
history and the ancient texts. They brushed his criticism aside
by saying that he was merely echoing what the Christian
missionaries had said about the Indian society in general and
Brahmin in particular. The established scholars in his time did
not take Phule's arguments seriously. His critics did not realise
that Jotirao's acrimonious criticism was basically a spontaneous
outburst of a genuine concern for the equal rights of human
beings Emotionally he was so deeply involved in his work that he
could not make a dispassionate analysis and take a detached view
of the social forces. Jotirao's deep sense of commitment to
basic human values made it difficult for him to restrain himself
when he witnessed injustice and atrocities committed in the name
of religion by those who were supposed to be its custodians.

Widow remarriages were banned and child-marriage was very common
among the Brahmin and other upper castes in the then Hindu
society. Many widows were young and not all of them could live in
a manner in which the orthodox people expected them to live.
Some of the delinquent widows resorted to abortion or left their
illegitimate children to their fate by leaving them on the
streets. Out of pity for the orphans, jotirao Phule established
an orphanage, possibly the first such institution founded by a
Hindu. Jotirao gave protection to pregnant widows and assured
them that the orphanage would take care of their children. It was
in this orphanage run by Jotirao that a Brahmin widow gave birth
to a boy in 1873 and Jotirao adopted him as his son.

For sometime, Jotirao worked as a contractor for the government
and supplied building material required for the construction of a
huge barrage at Khadakvasala near Poona. He had a direct
experience of working with the officials of the Public Works
Department which was notorious as a hotbed of corruption. Except
for the British officers holding very high positions in the
Department, the clerks and other officers were invariably Brahmin
and they exploited the illiterate workers. Jotirao felt in
necessary to explain to the workers how they were duped by the
Brahmin officials. In one of the ballads composed by him, he
described vividly the fraudulent practices resorted to by the
Brahmin officials in the Public Works Department (printed at the
end of `Slavery')

In 1868, Jotirao decided to give access to the untouchables to
small bathing tank near his house. In his controversial book
called Slavery published in June 1873, Jotirao included a
manifesto which declared that he was willing to dine with all
regardless of their caste, creed or country of origin. It is
significant that several newspapers refused to give publicity to
the manifesto because of its contents. His book Slavery was
severely criticised for its `venomous propaganda' against the
Brahmins. Jotirao dedicated this book `to the good people of the
United States as a token of admiration for their sublime,
disinterested and self sacrificing devotion in the cause of Negro
Slavery'. The book is written in the form of a dialogue. After
tracing the history of the Brahmin domination in India, Jotirao
examined the motives and objects of cruel and inhuman laws framed
by the brahmins. Their main object in fabricating these
falsehoods was to dupe the minds of the ignorant and rivet firmly
on them the chains of perpetual bondage and slavery which their
selfishness and cunning had forged, The severity of the laws as
affecting the Sudras and the intense hatred with which they were
regarded by the Brahmins can be explained on no other supposition
but that there was, originally between the two, a deadly feud
arising from the advent of the latter in to this land. Jotirao
argued that the sudras were the sons of the soil while the
Brahmins came from outside and usurped everything that was
possessed by the `not one hundredth part of the rogueries' that
were generally practised on his `poor, illiterate and ignorant
Sudra brethren'.

On 24 September 1873, Jotirao convened a meeting of his followers
and admirers and it was decided to form the 'Satya Shodhak
Samaj' (Society of Seekers of Truth) with Jotirao as its first
president and treasurer. Every member had to take pledge of
loyalty to the British Empire. The main objectives of the
organisation were to liberate the Shudras and Ati Shudras and to
prevent their exploitation by the Brahmins. All the members of
the Satya Shodhak Samaj were expected to treat all human being as
children of God and worship the Creator without the help of any
mediator. The Membership was open to all and the available
evidence proves that some Jews were admitted as members. In 1876.

Jotirao refused to regard the Vedas as sacrosanct. He opposed
idolatry and denounced the chaturvarnya. In his book Sarvajanik
Satya Dharma Pustak published in 1891, his views on religious and
social issues are given in the form of dialogue. According to
him, both men and women were entitled to enjoy equal rights and
it was a sin to discriminate between human being on the basis of
sex. He stressed the unity of man and envisaged a society based
on liberty, equality and fraternity. He was aware that religious
bigotry and aggressive nationalism destroy the unity of man.

In 1876 Jotirao was nominated as a member of the Poona
Municipality, He tried to help the people in the famine-stricken
areas of Maharashtra when a severe famine in 1877 forced people
in the rural area to leave their villages. Some of them had to
leave their children behind and appeal issued on 17 May 1877 by
Jotirao indicates that the Victoria Orphanage was founded under
the auspices of the Satya Shodhak Samaj to took after these
unfortunate children. From the beginning of the year 1879
Krishnarao Bhalekar, one of his colleagues, edited a weekly
called Deenbandhu which was the organ of the Satya Shodhak
Samaj. The weekly articulated the grievances of the peasants and
workers. Deenbandhu defended Jotirao when Vishnushastri
Chiplunkar, a powerful spokesmen of the conservative
nationalists, attacked Jotirao's writing in the most vitriolic
style.

Narayan Meghaji Lokhande was another prominent colleague of
Jotirao, Lokhande is acclaimed as the Father of Trade Union
Movement in India From 1880 onward, he look over the management
of Deenbabdhu which published from Bombay. Along with Lokhande.
Jotirao also addressed the meetings of the textile workers in
Bombay. It is significant that before and his colleagues Bhalekar
and Lokhande tried to organise the peasants and the workers, no
such attempt was made by any organisation to redress their
grievances.

One of the charges levelled by Jotirao against the leaders of
the Brahmo Samaj and the Prarthana Samaj, the Sarvajanik Sabha
and the Indian National Congress was that despite their
programmes, in reality, they did very little to improve the lot
of the masses. He felt that these organisations were dominated
by the Brahmins and were not truly representative in character.
In his booklet called Satsara (The Essence of Truth) published in
June 1885, he criticised the Brahmo Samaj and the Prarthana
Samaj. Addressing their leaders he declared, 'We don't need the
help of your organisations. Don't worry about us' In his book,
Sarvajanik Sabha or the Indian National Congress. He warned that
the persistent demand made by these organisation for
Indianisation of the administrative services, if accepted, would
lead to Brahminisation of the service in India. He thought that
it was difficult to create a sense of nationality so long as the
restriction on dining and marrying outside the caste continued to
be observed by people belonging to different castes. Education of
the masses would promote the process of nation-making.

It should be remembered that just as Jotirao did not mince words
when he criticised the leaders of the reformist movement he was
equally fearless in criticising the decision of the alien rulers
which did not contribute to the welfare of the masses. When the
government wanted to grant more licences for liquor-shop, Jotirao
condemned this move as he believed that addiction to liquor
would ruin many poor families. On 30 November 1880, the President
of the Poona Municipality requested the members of approve his
proposal of spending one thousand rupees on the occasion of the
visit of Lord Lytton, the Governor-General of India. The official
wanted to present him an address during his visit to Poona.
Lytton had passed an Act which resulted in gagging the press and
Deenbandhu, the organ of the Satya Shodhak Samaj, had protested
against the restriction on the right to freedom of the press.
Jotirao did not like the idea of spending the money of the tax-
payers in honouring a guest like Lytton. He boldly suggested
that the amount could be very well spent on the education of the
poor people in poona. He was the only member out of all the
thirty-two nominated members of the Poona Municipality who voted
against the official resolution.

Another incident also revealed his attachment for the poor
peasant and his courage in drawing the attention of member of the
British royal family to the sufferings of the framers in rural
areas, On 2 March 1888, Hari Raoji Chiplunkar, a friend of
Jotirao, arranged a function in honour of the Duke and Duchess of
Connaught. Dressed like a peasant, Jotirao attended the function
and made a speech. He commented on the rich invitees who
displayed their wealth by wearing diamond studded jewellery and
warned the visiting dignitaries that the people who had gathered
there did not represent India. If the Duke of Connaught was
really interested in finding out the condition of the Indian
subjects of Her Majesty the Queen of England, Jotirao suggested
that the ought to visit some nearby village as well as the areas
in the city occupied by the untouchables. He requested the Duke
of Connaught who was a grandson of Queen Victoria to convey his
message to her and made a strong plea to provide education to
the poor people, Jotirao's speech created quit a stir.

Throughout his life. Jotirao Phule fought for the emancipation of
the downtrodden people and the struggle which he launched at a
young age ended only when he died on 28 November 18 He was a
pioneer in many fields and among his contemporaries he stands
out as one who never wavered in his quest for trust for and
justice, Thought he was often accused of fomenting hatred between
the non Brahmins, very rarely an attempt was made to consider
his scathing criticism in a broad perspective. The later
generation also took considerable time to understand and
appreciate the profound significance of his unflinching espousal
of the rights of man remained till the end of his life a major
theme of his writings and a goal of his actions. [ p.xxii ]

The following is the page of dedication in original book

DEDICATED
TO
THE GOOD PEOPLE OF THE
UNITED STATES

AS A TOKEN OF ADMIRATION FOR THEIR
SUBLIME DISINTERESTED AND
SELF SACRIFICING DEVOTION

in the cause of Negro Slavery;
and with an earnest desire,
that my countrymen may take
their noble example as their
guide in the emancipation of
their Sudra Brethren from
the trammels of Brahmin
thraldom.

Following is the back cover of the English book

"Mahatma Phule-- The greatest Shudra of Modern who
made the lower classes of Hindus Conscious of their
Slavery to the higher classes and who preached the
gospel that for India social democracy was more vital
than independence from foreign rule",-
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

"My object in writing the present volume is not
only to tell my Sudra a brethren how they have duped by
the Brahmin, but also to open the eyes of Government
to that pernicious system of high class education
which has hitherto been so persistently followed and
which statesmen like Sir George Campbell, the present
Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, with broad and universal
sympathies, are finding to be highly mischievous and
pernicious to the interests of Government. I sincerely
hope that 'Government will ere long see the error of
their ways, trust less to writers of men who look
through high class spectacles and take the glory into
their own hands of emancipating my Sudra brethren from
the trammels of bondage which the Brahmins have woven
round them like the coils of a serpent, It is no less
the duty of such of my Sudra brethren as have received
any education to place before Government the true
state of their fellow men and endeavour to the end best
of their power to emancipate themselves from Brahmin
thraldom. Let there be school for the Sudras in every
village; but away with all brahmin school-masters!
The Sudras are the life and sinews of the country, and
it is to them alone and not to tide them over their
difficulties, financial as well as political."-
Jotirao Phule

Comments by Dr. K. Jamanadas:

The readers may be astonished at the frankness, boldness and
power of arguments, put forward by Mahatma Phule, about a
century and a half ago. It may be remembered that these
books were not only read by a few literates but were read to
the mass gatherings of illiterate masses. It may also be
remembered that there used to be severe criticism from
Chiplunkarite brahminical press. The readers are urged to
look into the rationality and not neccesarily the
historicity of his teachings, and the circumstances under
which Mahatma Phule had to work.

Language of Phule. : The brahmanic opponents of Phule talked
of grammer in his language, rather than the contents and
concepts. Chiplunkar, who was one such author of those times
was honorably designated by the brahmanic scholars as the
"Shivaji of Marathi Language". It is the irony of fate that
this so called "Shivaji ..." is forgotten by the history,
whereas Phule is worshipped in thousands of dalitbahujan
houses even today. The harsh language used by him was the
need of the day. It is not an outbreak suddenly experienced
once in a while. His language, no doubt was rustic, but it
has beauty of its own, incomparable by brahmanical author,
and is tremendously versatile in dealing with various art
forms. He had to fight with the a gigantic power camouflaged
in the form of a religion and culture. He had declared a war
against a system which was cruel, adamant, brutal, fierce,
harsh, obstinate, inhumane, venomous and vehement and had
infiltrated the body politic of Indian society. He had to
fight against those who had tremendous resources and had
means to quell any rebellion against their ideology. Phule
had full knowledge about his adversaries. They were the
people who had vanquished a great personality of Buddha,
subdued the intelligent, rational, astute and wise acumen
of Charwaka, observed one scholar.

The readers are urged to notice the force of arguments, and his
rationality. No wonder, the present day workers of "Andha
Shraddhaa Nirmulan Samiti" (Society for removal of Blind faith)
are all devotees of Phule.

There is some controversy about whether Phule believed in
God. I do strongly feel that he did not believe in God. None
of his concepts agree with the traditional concepts of God,
Allah or Ishwar, as is belived by others as the supreme
being. He used the word "Nirmik", which literally means
creater. He did not believe that Nirmik gets happy by
offerings or gives boons or needs the middle men to interact
with humans. From the account of various Avataras, he did
not believe in the theory of Avataras either. If anything,
he ridiculed it.

The names of real gods of dalitbahujans in todays
terminology and "shudraatishudra" of Phule's terminology are
mentioned in "Slavery". After the disappearance of Vedic
Gods like Indra, Varun and Agni, the gods like Brahma,
Vishnu or Mahesh or the avataras like Rama and Krishna or
the more recent deities like Gauri and Ganpati are said to
be Hindu gods. None of the these were known to masses, whose
gods had alaways been different from Brahmanic gods. Phule
has given some of the names prevallent in Maharashtra. These
are Jotiba, Khandoba, Bahiroba etc. As is well known,
Phule's name Jotirao is not evolved from "Jyoti" meaning
flame. It is based on a gods name "Jotiba".

A few more points need clarification.
1. The "bathing tank" described above as being opened for
untouchables, may confuse people. In Marathi it is called "Haud"
which means a tank. But it is connected to a big well inside
fitted with a "rahat", a contraption with numerous small buckets
which keep on pouring water into the open half pipe, and is
rotated by bullocks moving round and round. So it was a source of
pure drinking water for the Untouchables. No body else dared to
give water to them.

2. There was a break in Primary education of Phule for three
years, when his father was convinced by his brahmin "diwanji"
that the child would be "useless" for agriculture if takes
education. Thanks to Mr. Ligit, a padre and Munshi Gaffar Beg,
who convined him to put the son in school. These two names are so
important that people have dedicated their books in their names.

3. The "Orphanage" mentioned above, was named very meaningfully
as "Bal hatya pratibandhak gruha" (House for prevention of
murders of infants". Many brahmin widows had taken shelter there.
Kashibai was one such woman, who gave birth to a son. He was
named Yashwant and was later adopted by childless Phule couple.
After the death of Phuley Yashwant was not allowed by the
relatives to carry the "tikte", (an earthen pot on a bamboo
trangle holding fire, to burn the dead body), and perform final
rituals. That time, his wife Sawitribai Phule held the pot and
led the funeral procession and also did the burning of body of
her late husband, a thing unheard of during those days. (and
perhaps even today)